Video: Experimental Ebola drug cures lab monkeys

DOLO TOWN, LIBERIA - AUGUST 24: A Liberian Ministry of Health worker checks people for Ebola symptoms at a checkpoint near the international airport on August 24, 2014 near Dolo Town, Liberia.

John Moore

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The lethal Ebola outbreak is getting worse in West Africa; so far, the virus has caused over 1,550 deaths across five countries. But one of the most promising experimental treatments for combating the epidemic just got a boost.

In a paper published in Nature Friday, researchers testing the experimental drug ZMapp reported it successfully cured a group of monkeys infected with the Ebola virus.

​The scientists injected 18 macaque monkeys in the test group with an Ebola strain similar to the one at the heart of the current outbreak, then treated the monkeys with ZMapp at various stages of infection. The treatment saved all 18 monkeys, even when it was administered as late as five days past infection. By contrast, none of the three Ebola-infected monkeys in the control group survived.